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Class Notable: Nayeon Kim
Class Notes
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Kim volunteers with Get On the Bus, which brings children of incarcerated individuals to visit their parents in prison on Father’s and Mother’s day
CLASS NOTABLE
Prison Reformist
Nayeon Kim believes there is benefit to society in reducing the prison terms of people of color and others victimized by excessive sentences and systemic racism. And she is dedicated to this work.
Kim is finishing up her law degree at City University of New York (CUNY) in 2022, which puts her one step closer to that goal.
At the University of Oregon, Kim was part of the Inside Out program that unites college students and incarcerated people in academic courses in prison. “The more incarcerated people I met, the more I knew there was no going back to a life where I could ignore prisons,” Kim says. “Lawyers have tools to disrupt the ongoing violence in people’s lives, so that’s what I want to do.”
Kim graduated from the Clark Honors College in 2015 with degrees in Romance languages and history and jumped into immigration advocacy at the US-Mexico border, where she did asylum work.
She recently finished an internship with the Southern Center for Human Rights of Georgia. She volunteers with the Parole Preparation project in New York, and she represents a clemency client through CUNY’s law school clinic.
“My near-future goals are lawyering toward ending mass incarceration,” Kim says. “A lot of people have served excessive sentences, and a lot of people have been impacted by systematic racism. I view the law as a means to an end, and that end is justice for people of color and historically disadvantaged people.” —Victoria Sanchez, BA ’19 (journalism), College of Arts and Sciences Communications FLASHBACK 192 In October, the UO launches an endowment campaign and appeals to alumni to help establish “the habit of making gifts to the university.”
Indicates UOAA Member
1960s
ELDON
ALBERTSON, BS ’61 (education), is writing an autobiography and family histories after traveling to China in 2017 and 2018.
1970s
Oregon Attorney General ELLEN ROSENBLUM, BS ’71 (sociology), received a 2021 Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award from the American Bar Association.
JOY L.
RUPPERSBURG, BS ’75 (elementary education), MEd ’84 (special education), a former teacher, principal, and superintendent in Oregon and California, moved her private practice as an education therapist from San Rafael, California, to her home in Petaluma, where she also enjoys organic gardening and maintaining a wildlife habitat she has dubbed, “Joy’s Jungle Petaluma.”
RUBY HAUGHTON-
PITTS, BS ’77 (speech: rhetoric and communication), wrote an opinion piece for the Oregonian in which she argued the state must examine workplace biases that sideline women of color.
DANIEL
WINFREE, BS ’77 (accounting), was chosen chief justice of the Alaska Supreme Court, becoming the first chief justice born in Alaska. JAMES CUNO, MA ’78 (art history), an arts leader and scholar, announced his retirement as president and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust after a decade at the helm of one of the world’s largest philanthropic organizations dedicated to visual arts and cultural heritage.
BONNIE
VORENBURG, MS ’79 (speech: theater arts), was featured in Oregon ArtsWatch for her creation of the Portland-based ArtAge Senior Theatre Resource Center, which has helped spur a flourishing national scene of theater for and by older people.
1980s
BRUCE EATON, BS ’80 (chemistry), became executive
FLASHBACK 193 Nearly 300 banqueters gather at Eugene’s Osburn Hotel in May to honor Arnold Bennett Hall, demanding that he “serve the rest of his life as president of the University of Oregon.”
vice president and chief business officer of Editas Medicine, a biotechnology company based in Boulder, Colorado.
PETER
EBERHARDT, BS ’81 (geography), was featured in the “Happening People” section of Eugene Weekly for his career as a cartographer and for creating the Oregon Blackberry Award, which recognizes people making a difference in the cultures and communities of Oregon.
JULIE YAMAKA, BA ’81 (German), announced her retirement as editor of the Oregon Blue Book, the state fact book for city, county, and state governments in Oregon.
GERRY
KOSANOVIC, MS ’82, PhD ’91 (educational policy and management), was appointed Governor of Rotary International District 5110, serving Oregon and Northern California.
JULIET HYAMS, BA ’84 (journalism), was appointed city manager of Garibaldi.
DOUG
KOEKKOEK, BS ’84 (biology), joined PeaceHealth, a nonprofit healthcare system based in Vancouver, Washington, as chief physician executive, leading clinical care integration and expanding partnerships to improve quality of care and outcomes.
KURT STEINHAUS, MS ’86 (independent study: computer science education), was appointed secretary of the New Mexico Public Education Department.
KRISTIN SKOGEN
LUND, BA ’89 (international studies), joined the board of directors of Adevinta, which operates classifieds websites across Europe and internationally.
1990s
TILAK MANDADI, MS ’90 (computer and information science), became chief strategy, innovation, and technology officer for MGM Resorts International.
PETER
WIEDENSMITH, BA ’90 (speech: telecommunication and film), launched Portland-based Academy, a postproduction company that will work with creative agencies, directors, and up-and-coming editors.
CHRISTOPHER
SYRNYK, BA ’91, MA ’98 (Russian), associate professor of communication at Oregon Institute of Technology, was elected president of the Western Regional Honors Council, comprising approximately 300 honors colleges and programs at accredited institutions of higher learning in 13 states.
LAILA
MACHARIA, BA ’92 (planning, public policy and management), was appointed to the board of Centrum multivitamin company.
MICHAEL
SÁMANO, BA ’92 (sociology, ethnic studies), lead faculty and program coordinator of ethnic studies at Lane Community College, has written and published an ethnic studies textbook, Dissent is Patriotic.
JASON DAUGHN, BA ’93 (English), a healthcare executive,
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